If Gravity has an Achilles heel in the race for best picture, it’s its screenplay, which wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar. Some people find its unscientific assumptions maddening. (Vulture even [enlisted an astronaut to enumerate them all] (http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/astronaut-fact-checks-gravity.html).) Others complain that “nothing happens.” In his remarks, Cuarón subtly undermined both lines of attack.

The script isn’t meant to be realistic, he suggested; it’s more of a philosophical meditation on humanity’s oneness. “We saw all these photographs of earth from space, and it’s absolutely beautiful,” he said, talking about the inspiration for the project. “Everything seems so organic. Those silly lines and boundaries we put on political maps—you can’t see that from space.”

And he reminded the audience that, when it comes to plot points and movies set in outer space, nothing is a whole lot better than the wrong kind of something. “After all those test screenings,” he said to his studio overlords at Warner Bros., “thank you for not inserting an alien or a monster and for remaining faithful. I don’t know—maybe use them in the sequel.”

Those are important themes to raise at a time when Academy voters are pondering their choices. Right now, it’s still anyone’s guess which of three films—12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, or Cuaron’s Gravity—will claim best picture.

The way things stand, Warner Bros. looks likely to have its faith in Cuarón rewarded with three quarters of a billion dollars and an Oscar for best director, if nothing else. And with 12 Years a Slave looking like the virtuous choice for best picture, it’s easy to imagine the producers of American Hustle sweating, tugging their collars, and telling one another, “We gotta get over on all these guys. That’s what we need to be thinkin’ about right now.”